3/19/2020

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Hearing all sides of the story, Paris Art Lab,

Hear all versions of the story by the Franco-American collective The Big Conversation Space, composed of Niki Korth and Clémence de Montgolfier, puts at the forefront the challenges of oral history, access and dissemination of archival resources, and the role of actors and very actresses in the making of this story. It is an invitation to hear the views of those who will agree to participate in the conversation. Discussion and in-depth listening are collaborative tools which, through the degrees of trust they presuppose, lead participants to become witnesses, autonomous and responsible. The questions translated into four languages ​​(French, English, Arabic, Portuguese) and materialized in space draw us into a reflexive laziness, asking us about our relationship to place, space, to our neighbors…. "How do you feel in this space? "Did you know that the land we are on now was once an island?" Are all pretexts for dialogue. The interweaving of testimonies stems from a didactic bias to adopt a strictly open-plan approach, to prefer dissimilarity to standardization. In the heart of the city, in a neighborhood prone to desertification and also in the midst of an urban transition, inhabited by a mixed population due to its levels of attendance (tourists, passers-by, workers, residents), and due to its various specializations (architects, traders, workers, public institutions) is a microcosm of the diversity existing in our democracies. Are we able to look at each other's point of view in this shared history of a city and a place? What stories of the place should be preserved and incorporated into public discourse and official history? In a society where the urgency of the active participation of citizens in technical democracy can no longer be ignored, looking at the margins should be preserved. Every Friday afternoon, regulars and first-time visitors are welcomed in the friendly space of the laboratory where hot drinks are offered to them. The season, punctuated by these weekly meetings and special events, allows us to investigate how the history of a neighborhood and an urban area is constructed, the impact of technology on recording, knowledge of the past and memory, and if it is possible to find multiple layers of the past that relate to each other, in the manner of an archeology of knowledge. The artists will look at how personal stories relate to the collective history and shared experience of the place.

Hearing all sides of the story includes three interviews visible below around archiving, space and inhabiting a place and a territory in relationship with others. Participants involved are Los Angeles Contemporary Archive's members Hailey Loman and Saida Largaespada, architect Sonia Vu from the Encore Heureux agency, and artist and local resident Marta Hoskins.